No March Madness for Cord Cutters

It’s March Madness time; it’s also time to make sure that your pay-TV subscription is up to date.

A good chunk of the tournament’s 67 games will only be available to people who have access to Turner-owned cable channels TNT, TBS and TruTV. And for the first time ever, that includes the two semifinal games on Saturday, April 5: If you don’t have pay TV and you don’t want to watch the Final Four games at a bar, you’re going to be out of luck.

The (legal) Internet won’t help you, either: There are official tournament apps available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Kindle, etc., which will stream all the games, but the only way to get the ones that are on cable channels are by “authenticating” -- proving that you have a pay-TV subscription. The CBS games -- including the April 7 final -- will stream for free, though.